Be Aware: Your Friends Could Be Sharing Your Number with ChatGPT
ChatGPT is evolving into a more social platform, introducing a feature that syncs your contacts to reveal if any of your friends are using the chatbot or other OpenAI products. While details are scarce, the company hasn't revealed how this feature will look or what it will unlock for users. However, they have updated their privacy policy to indicate that contact syncing will help users 'find friends,' and it's described as 'completely optional.'
Even if you don't opt in, anyone with your number who syncs their contacts is giving OpenAI your digits. The company explains that OpenAI may process your phone number if someone you know has your number saved in their address book and chooses to upload their contacts. (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001059-information-on-contact-importing-for-people-who-dont-use-openais-services)
If you sync your contacts and OpenAI finds a matching account, it will suggest connecting with that person. If you choose to follow them, the person may receive a notification with an option to follow back. But why would you want to follow someone on ChatGPT? Well, it aligns with reports from April suggesting that OpenAI is building a social network (https://www.theverge.com/openai/648130/openai-social-network-x-competitor). Since then, we've seen the launch of the Sora generative video app (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/161081/brace-yourself-for-a-flood-of-ai-videos-openais-sora-app-launches-on-android), which exists outside of ChatGPT and is more of a novelty. Contact sharing might be the first step toward a much bigger evolution for the world's most popular chatbot.
ChatGPT also supports group chats that allow up to 20 people to discuss and research topics using the chatbot. Contact syncing could simplify the process of inviting people to these chats. OpenAI will regularly check if someone in your contacts has created a new account to attempt to connect you. The company assures that it won't store full contact data like names or email addresses, only phone numbers. However, they do store phone numbers in a coded (or hashed) format on their servers. You can revoke access in your device's settings.
Additionally, OpenAI has started rolling out advertisements inside ChatGPT this week. Free users can opt out of ads, although this restricts their messaging rate limits. This move comes after rival AI firm Anthropic criticized OpenAI for its ad plan in a Super Bowl spot (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/163039/anthropics-super-bowl-ad-was-less-of-a-chatgpt-takedown-than-expected). CEO Sam Altman responded by calling Anthropic dishonest (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/162969/anthropic-says-no-ads-on-claude-but-it-will-spend-millions-on-a-super-bowl-spot).
